If the Storm Won't Pass, dance in the Rain
by Neverland8
Summary: Kopa was the second-born son of Simba, and was always jealous of his sister, the heir. However, when a freak accident happens, Kopa's memory is wiped and he is raised by a lioness and her daughter in the forest. But when Kopa's old home is threatened, he has go on a quest to save the home he doesn't remember... and the lioness he loves. Rated T for Violence. I do not own Lion King
1. Prologue

**_Prologue_**

The animals of the savannah were all going to the same place. It was a sight to behold, all the animals heading in the same direction. No human has ever seen it, or ever will.

Once they all reached Pride Rock, they stamped their hooves and brayed and screeched with glee as their King and Queen stood above them. A meerkat and warthog were up there too, waving to the audience. The King, Simba, nuzzled the Queen, and Nala nuzzled him back. Behind them, a baboon walked up. They all parted to make way for him, and he lifted up a young lioness cub. She swiped at some leaves floating in the breeze as the animals below her roared louder, in a vocal form of applause. She had absolutely no concept of what was happening, but enjoyed the attention immensely.

However, below Pride Rock, things were happening.

Only a few lionesses and cubs were below. An old lioness, Hewa, stretched. "I wonder what's going on up there."

"Why don't you go find out?" Ndoto, a brown lioness, asked.

"I was here for Mufasa's lifting." Hewa yawned. "I don't think I can _stand_ another one. What about you guys?"

Ndoto rolled her eyes. "Me? I'm expecting. Cubs are coming in any day now."

"Sick." Samaki sneezed.

Nyekundu glanced over at her two cubs, who were sleeping on top of each other. "With these two, there would end up being three cubs and a baboon falling off pride rock."

All the lionesses laughed but one. She was in the corner, washing her young, brown cub.

Nyekundu noticed her sulking. "What about you, Zira?"

She glared up. "Not in the mood."

Ndoto growled, before changing the subject. "Besides," she looked down to a golden lion cub. "We have to look after the other one."

"The last time we had twins," Hewa growled, "It was Mufasa and Scar."

Samaki growled at Hewa. "That was Ahadi. This little cub will be different."

"We don't know that." Hewa hissed. "Scar was a cub, too."

"This is different." Ndoto growled. "This is not Mufasa and Scar."

"We know that full well." Zira growled, but the others ignored her.

"This is Kiara and-" Ndoto paused. "What is the other cub's name?"

Hewa looked at the little sleeping cub. "Kopa. His name is Kopa."


	2. Chapter One: Kiara and Kopa

_**Chapter One**_

"Kopa?"

Kopa opened his big, brown eye and looked over at his sister, who was prodding him awake. "What _is_ it, Kiara?"

"I want to go play!" the little lioness bounced up-and-down.

"It's hard to believe you're actually _older_ than me!" Kopa moaned. "Are mom and dad awake?"

"Dad is, but he's hunting." Kiara rolled her eyes. "But I still want to go play."

"No, Kiara. If Mom and Dad said no..."

Kiara lay down on top of her brother. "Come on! Come on!"

Kopa stood up and shook himself. "Alright... but only by Pride Rock."

"Yes!" Kiara cheered and ran outside. Kopa followed slowly, muttering under his breath.

Outside, Kopa found out he wasn't alone. Pacha and Mvulana, the teenage twin cubs, were grumbling to each other, while Tatu, Msichana, Matumbawe, Uchawi and Foliti, the quintuplets who were only a little bit younger than Kopa and Kiara, were trying to sleep in a pile.

"Why do you always wake up so _early_, Kiara?" Pacha rubbed his eyes with his paw.

"I want to play!" the little princess giggled. "Who wants to play what?"

"I want to play sleep." Uchawi whispered.

Kiara ran in circles. "Let's play _Pride_. I'll be the Queen, and Kopa can be the King, and everyone else can be the pride lions!"

"Good." Mvulana laid down on the ground. "I'll be the sleeping lion, and everyone else can be the hunting lions."

"Sounds good to me!" Kiara rolled over laughing. "Kopa, you go hunt with the others."

Kopa shuffled his paws. "Um, Kiara?"

"What?"

"Hunting? We're just cubs!" Kopa protested.

"Exactly!" Came a voice from behind them.

Kopa whirled around, to see Nala blinking the dreariness from her eyes. "Oh, hi mom."

"You cubs are barely old enough to talk." Nala walked over. "And you're already trying to hunt. Sounds like Simba."

"Can I go play by the river?" Kopa asked, hoping to get rid of Kiara.

"No." Nala said, reaching over to groom Kiara.

"Why not?"

Nala rolled her eyes. "Because it flooded last night. You know that. You could sink in too deep. Your father's out hunting. Go find him."

"But-"

"Now!"

Kiara walked over to Kopa, strutting. "Go, Kopa. I'd give _anything_ to learn how to hunt!"

Kopa stalked away, thinking, _I bet Kiara gets to play by the river._

Little did he know he was being watched.


	3. Chapter Two: Zira

_**(Author's Note: If/when you review this chapter, try to guess the concept art references I made to the original Lion King movie.)**_

Kopa stalked through the grass, mumbling to himself. "Kiara gets to do whatever she wants. I bet it's because she's the oldest. I'm the male. _I_ should be King."

Then Kopa heard a voice inside his head saying, _Now you sound like Scar._

_No!_ he argued to himself. _I'm not like him! It's not like I would... kill Kiara or anything._

Kopa glanced at the bushes, and froze in his tracks.

A lioness was watching him.

Her small eyes were a dark amber, almost red. She had tan fur, and a darker tan stripe on her forehead, and a small nick in her left ear. Kopa started backing up. "Um... hi."

"Hello." she purred softly.

There was a slow silence as Kopa stepped back again.

"I'm Zira." the lioness growled. "And you are?"

"Ko-" Kopa began, before realizing how silly it would be to introduce himself to a complete stranger as the prince. "Um... Mheetu." Mheetu had been some sort of relative to Kopa. "Um, have I seen you around Pride Rock?"

"I doubt it." Zira crept out of the bushes. "I'm a rogue. Although, I do sometimes visit for the latest news." she paused. "You remind me of my cub, Nuka. He has a sister, Vitani."

"A sister?" Kopa asked, and stopped backing up. "Is she really annoying?"

Zira's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm guessing you have one, too."

"Yeah," Kopa cocked his head. "Her name's Kia- Bhati."

"Bhati." Zira echoed. "That's a great name. I had a sister named Bhati, too. She was the older sibling, though."

"Yeah, well, so's mine." Kopa growled.

"Oh, I thought for sure that _you_ must have been the older sibling." Zira purred, and Kopa stood up straighter.

"Well, she's really spoiled." Kopa informed Zira. "And she gets to do _whatever_ she wants to, too."

Zira thought for a second. "Is she sort of tanish-yellow, with brown eyes?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's her!"

"Oh, I saw her playing by the stream earlier."

Kopa swallowed a gulp. "She was?" It seemed like something she would do, seeing as she got up before the sun did.

"Oh, yes. She even went for a swim."

"Mom said the river was too flooded."

"Oh, well, too flooded for _you,_ I assume, but for _Bhati_, the _oldest..._"

Kopa growled. "I could swim anywhere she could!"

"Oh, could you?" Zira purred. "Want to see?"

"But... mom says the river-" Kopa gulped. The last thing he wanted to do was make his mom mad.

"Oh, we could go somewhere else." Zira shuffled her paws craftily. "How about the gorge?"

"The... what?"

"Oh, it's a nice, open gorge. It was ordered flooded after King Mufasa died in it."

"King Mufasa _died _in it?" Kopa asked. He heard all about King Mufasa's death, and was hesitant to go the place he was killed in.

"Oh, that was before it was flooded. He died during a stampede while hunting."

Kopa looked up at Zira. "My Dad says that his brother, Scar, caused the stampede on purpose and he died saving Simba."

Zira smiled. "Well, I guess everyone's story is different. Well, are you coming?" She turned around and flicked her tail.

"Well, if it's safe, sure!" Kopa scampered after the lioness, his tail flicking back-and-forth.

Zira smiled. "Good." she purred, and when Kopa ran ahead, she looked behind her and winked.

Four lionesses were standing there. They nodded and scampered. Three ran to the gorge, and one to the river.

Zira's plan was working perfectly.


	4. Chapter Three: The Plan

**To** **DarthRusty: **Yes, Mheetu was Nala's original little brother. In the original stampede draft, Scar lured Mheetu into the stampede to get Simba to save him, and effectively kill Simba, but he ended up killing Mufasa instead. And Bhati was a female bat-eared fox, one of Simba's friends.

_**Chapter Three**_

Kopa walked behind Zira, bouncing all the way. Suddenly, Zira stopped, and Kopa dug his claws into the ground to keep from running into her. "What is it?" he asked.

Zira sniffed, and looked over at Kopa. "Oh, it's just... I left my cubs over here. I might as well tell them where I'm going, so they don't get too worried. You stay here."

"Okay!" Kopa grinned. Zira stalked off into the bushes, leaving a smiling Kopa behind.

As soon as Kopa was out of earshot, Zira sat up straight. "Nuka," she growled, "You can come out now."

After about two seconds, a brown lion cub walked toward her, carrying two baby cubs by the scruff. "Do I really remind you of the Prince, Mom?" he asked.

"What are you doing here?" Zira hissed, her tail flicking angrily. "You're endangering the entire mission!"

"I wanted to see how this played out." the cub told his mother matter-of-factly. "And I couldn't leave these babies unattended. They're too young. And the other lionesses wouldn't watch them."

"That's because they are Scar's children. They don't trust you."

Nuka continued as if there had been no interruption. "I know. I wanted to see how you perform this mission, so I can do it, too someday."

Zira rolled her eyes. "You know very well that _Kovu_ will be the next King."

"I just think that whoever _wants _to be King should be."

Zira started pacing around the three cubs. "Being Scar's children, if Simba's children die, you will be next in line for the throne. Kovu is the youngest, and Scar had to work his whole life to be king, just because he happened to be born second. He didn't want his second child to have to suffer like he did, so Kovu will be the next king."

Nuka protested, "But Kovu's not even-"

"End of discussion. Now go to Pride Rock."

Nuka growled and slid Kovu unsteadily onto his back, and picking the other cub, a lioness, hastily by the scruff, and ran back towards Pride Rock. Zira walked back towards Kopa, who was pacing.

"So Mheetu," she grinned, "Are you ready for a swim?"

Kiara looked up at her mother. "Can _I_ go swim in the river?"

"Absolutely not." Nala hissed. "I told your brother the same thing: it's too flooded."

Kiara sighed, and looked around. Her eye caught a large shape walking towards them. "Dad's back!"

Nala looked too, and jumped to her paws. As Simba walked up, she asked, "Where's Kopa?"

"Isn't he with you?" Simba asked.

"No, I sent him to help you!"

Kiara looked up at her two parents. "He's with the lioness."

Both lions looked down at her in surprise. "What lioness?" Simba asked.

"Well, I saw him pass with a lioness." Kiara told him. "The lioness was kinda ugly. One of her ears was torn. Her eyes were really creepy. After that some cubs followed her, talking about the "plan". Well, one of them was talking. The others were too young. Mom, can I go hunting?"

Simba exclaimed, "Wait! Kiara, go back!"

Kiara looked up at her parents. "What were we talking about, again?"

Before Simba could answer, a brown lioness ran up. She was out of breath, and nearly collapsed. "Flood... gorge..." she panted, and then looked up. "There's a flood in the gorge. Kopa's... Kopa's in there!"

Simba and Nala started running off. Kiara yelled at them, "Let me come! I can help!"

Simba looked back as he ran, and stopped. "Kiara, stay here with..."

"Kupanda." the lioness answered.

Simba nodded and took off after the Queen towards the gorge.


End file.
